A Chat with Forest Nui Cobalt
I watched a video of you performing with an outfit that had sensors wired into it, which enabled you to create music and visuals with your movement. How does this outfit work, more specifically? What is it like to dance with this technology?
Ah, yes. The full-body gesture-driven audio and visual performance system. It feels like being a comic book superhero. I flick my wrist and there is instantaneous light and sound. I turn my head and a temple bell rings. Alchemical symbols flash in the dark with each subtle gesture.
This is what I imagined it was like to have “magic powers’ when I was little. How it actually works… that is best discussed by Peter, the technological mind of Moodorgan Project. Here’s how he describes it: “The concept is a performance involving live music, video and lighting, controlled in real-time by an improvising dancer. We’re basically turning Forest’s body into an instrument, expanding the range of her dance performance from movement into music and video art. Some technical details: the sensor rig tracks rotation at the hip and knee joints and elbow (potentiometers), rotational acceleration of the head/body (head-mounted gyroscope), hand movement (accelerometers) and finger flex (flex sensor). These signals run though a wireless A-D system and are fed to a Max patch running on the Mac for initial processing (filtering, scaling, etc.). MIDI continuous controllers are then fed to several softsynths (mostly Rob Papen Albinos, in this case) hosted in Ableton Live (which is also controlling the overall tempo of the performance and driving arpeggiators and a backing rhythm part) and also to a hybrid Director/Flash piece running in the ThinkPad. The Director/Flash application generates real time animations based on the movement gestures, which are scan-converted and fed to the projector. Gestures also control LED lighting fixtures via DMX.”
What other forms of creative expression do you like to play and or work with?
I draw and paint here and there. Most of the costumes I wear in performance are made by me. Part of my magickal practice involves jewelry design, as I craft talismanic pieces for particular energetic intentions. Mostly, I write. Two web-zines run astrological columns of mine and I am chipping gradually away at a book project that I will finish – if it flippin’ kills me – by the end of this year. There, I said it so, now I have to do it.
You are currently providing psychic readings at The Psychic Eye in Sherman Oaks, California; where you also teach classes on astrology and lead guided meditation groups. What kind of an experience has this been for you?
It’s an amazingly healing experience for me and an educational one. Reading and teaching are as beneficial to me as I hope they are for my clients. Each session forces me to examine my own choices, thoughts and behaviors. Each class makes me realize something else I didn’t know about the practice and study of Astrology. I’d say it’s an ongoing, never ending growth process to which I owe a great deal of my health and happiness.*
